Shōkaichū
by twosmall
Summary: A shōkaichū is a worm-like chakra sensing insect used by the Aburame clan and Skitta Aburame is a Taylor Hebert like kunoichi of the Leaf. Naruto!AU that follows a team eight inspired by the Undersiders.


**Graduation 1.1**

 _A/N: This is a crossover between Naruto and Worm. I don't claim anything in either work. They are the property of Masashi Kishimoto and Wildbow respectively. If you haven't read Worm, I recommend checking it out. It's about a teenage girl who gains a superpower, her attempt to become a superhero, and her life as a supervillain._

 _Since Worm is a fairly dark setting and I'm bringing many elements from it into the Naruto setting, which was already rather brutal, young readers and anyone in need of trigger warnings should probably stop reading now._

From behind my dark goggles, I watched the rest of my class. All of us were waiting outside the exam hall, but it was clear that some people were a lot more confident than others. My own nerves were hidden by a stoic Aburame facade, but Naruto was pacing with restless energy, clearly on the edge of panic. Meanwhile, Sasuke and Shikamaru both seemed bored. In Shikamaru's case, he was so bored he had taken a nap.

I wasn't happy about that. The nap was fine, but the tree Shikamaru was using as a windbreak was usually my spot. My grey jacket only helped so much, even with the way it's collar flared up to cover the tunnels in my neck. The windbreak being taken had presented me with a lose lose situation.

If I plugged the exits to the hive with kikachu, Naruto would point at my bugs and make a scene. For all that one of his life goals was to make sure everyone believed he was named Naruto Uzumaki, he still didn't remember that my own name was Skitta Aburame. Expecting him to remember my bugs was asking far too much. Which was a problem, because one of the other things that Naruto tended to forget was that we had an Inuzaka in our class. Overloading an Inuzaka's senses was a step away from attacking them; his yelling would hurt Lin. Since she was almost as nervous as Naruto, I didn't want to make her morning any worse.

Iruka opened the door to the building. "Everyone come in and take a seat," he said.

I headed straight to my usual seat near the back of the classroom, glad to get inside where the wind couldn't get into the tunnels that riddled my body.

My two closest friends followed after me. We always sat together. Egao took the seat on my left. It was the closest to the door. She bent down to take something from the bag she had set by her feet. Her body was positioned so that it hid her from Daisuke-sensei and Mizuki-sensei who were across the room from the door. Lin walked by on her way to sit on my other side, cutting off Iruka-sensei too.

It was subtle and over in an instant, but in that brief moment where every chunnin-sensei hadn't been able to see Egao, I knew she had activated her Byakugan. By the time Lin had passed by, it wasn't active any longer, but it didn't matter. Egao had seen everything.

Egao's hand came out of her bag with the pen she always used and I suppressed a smile. Lin's ninken, Brutus, barked, passing along the pre-arranged message. Things were going as expected. The answer key we had copied, verified, and memorized was still correct.

As Lin took a seat to my right, her ninken jumped onto the table and then from there hopped onto her head. Lin winced; Having a ninken latch onto hair in an effort to get its balance wasn't a wonderful feeling. Still, once he had draped himself over her like he was some kind of dog-hat it was definitely worth it. From the higher vantage point, he would be a lot more useful; he could actually see what was going on and pass along information to Lin and by extension, to Egao and I.

My bugs could do something similar, but I didn't plan to use them for this test. It was just too obvious. I didn't want the sensei to think I was cheating unless I wanted them to know I was cheating. I planned to get a high score and didn't want to lose points unless I chose to lose them. Lin wasn't as constrained as I was, she didn't have to get a good score. So she could pass on any information she wanted.

Lin's freedom might end up being critical, because nearly everyone would be certain to get every answer right if they chose to do so. Passing the gennin exam was the least of our worries. The true point of the test was that the exam scores were the basis for team selection. The two graduates with the highest scores were paired with the graduate with the lowest score. The next two highest were paired with the second to last. The pattern continued and if there were left-over graduates at the end they were just rolled into existing teams that had lost a member.

Adapting to the scores everyone would get was the real challenge. In some classes it wasn't even a hard test. The Will of Fire saw everyone working together to coordinate. A lot of us were doing that. Just looking around the room was enough to tell who was conspiring with who. It was no accident that Shikamaru, Ino, and Chojji were sitting by each other. Nor was it an accident that Ami and the bullies like Fuki who looked up to her were sitting together.

Unfortunately, our class wasn't as lucky as some. We had several people who weren't willing to go along with pre-decided scores. Naruto was destined to fail and everyone knew it, so there would be two left overs. No one wanted to take a chance joining an existing team that had already shown that it's sensei wasn't capable of keeping it safe. Beyond that, there was Sasuke. He planned to get the top score and had no intention of coordinating or solving the drama with his fan girls.

I didn't blame him for that. I suspected a Yamanaka was at the root of Sasuke's fan club. Nearly every girl without a bloodline had a crush on Sasuke. He had been liked before the massacre, but I found it very suspicious how so many girls had become eager to help re-populate the Uchiha; especially with how every girl that already did have a bloodline wasn't interested.

Sasuke's refusal to interact with the girls who had a crush on him did leave the class with a problem though. We had to decide who would be allowed to score in such a way as to be placed on Sasuke's team. We were ready to do just that. We had to be. Shinobi Rule #1 was all about preparing before it was too late.

"There will be two components to your final exam. The first will be a written examination with fifty questions. Each question is worth one point. The second component of the exam will be the demonstration of a single jutsu that we will ask you to do privately at the time of testing. Completing it successfully will be worth five points," Iruka said. "To pass, you just need to get a combined total of twenty points or higher. Naturally, anyone caught cheating will be punished. Daisuke, Mizuki, and I will be taking a point for every instance of cheating we catch. The written exam begins as of now."

Daisuke and Mizuki began going through the room handing out the exams. Daisuke's path through the class was a basically a stop by each student in a clan with a helpful word of encouragement to clan heir's. It didn't take long before he reached my team's table. He slid three tests onto the desk, one at a time. "Good luck Egao," he offered. Then he walked toward other students who hadn't committed the grave offense of being born without a privileged background.

Mizuki made up for Daisuke's obvious pandering. He made sure people like Naruto and Ami weren't skipped over. There was definitely something underneath the obvious power plays, but I had figured it out early on and liked Mizuki anyways. It was refreshing to have a sensei whose motivation was to do a better job than Iruka, even it it meant offending people in the process, because Iruka was the best sensei I had ever had.

I turned my paper over and went through the questions marking things down until I had the minimum passing score, given that I managed the jutsu. Then I checked on how everyone else was doing.

The battle to see who would take a spot on Sasuke's team had already begun. Sakura was answering questions one after the other without hesitation. She probably wasn't even cheating. She was that good. Her competition, another civilian girl who hadn't been willing to let Sakura have a spot by Sasuke without a fight was… her competition was Ino wasn't it?

I couldn't see the shadow controlling Ino, but both Shikamaru and Ino were moving in synch with each other. How had they done it? Probably Ino had 'woken up' Shikamaru after I went inside. They would have already been in the shadow of the tree.

Vicky, controlled by Ino, had taken a seat by Naruto. It was the closest one to Sasuke. Vicky was also holding up a sheet of paper. My view was blocked by her head, but I was pretty sure it was an answer key.

She held it there for a moment and then nudged Naruto who looked up from his own test. "HEY!" Naruto yelled. "Iruka-sensei! She's cheating!"

Iruka glared at them both. "I know," he said. "I've been marking her down for it."

Vicky looked horrified. "No! I wasn't cheating. It was Ino."

"Don't drag me into this Vicky-pig!" Ino yelled. She picked up her test and showed it to Vicky from the across room. "I've been doing my test."

"Sharing answers just lost you a point," Iruka said, sounding slightly impressed rather than mad. Alright. Top two are officially Sasuke and Sakura, but more importantly, Ino just lost a point and is showing the class her test. From the back of the room, I couldn't tell what she showed the rest of the class, but if I were to guess… every question would be right.

"Chojji did you just steal Shikamaru's test?" Iruka scolded, smiling at the use of his own rules to successfully pass along the message to the rest of the class as to just where Ino, Shikamaru, and Chojji planned to score. "You lose one point as well."

Top four spots locked down. I didn't doubt for a second that anyone who tried to get past Ino and Shikamaru would fail to avoid making mistakes. It was hard to be perfect when you couldn't control your own body and the idea that a team that would have graduated years ago under the old graduation system couldn't manage it with the sensei watching for it was laughable.

Egao started answering her own questions as did several other students. With the question of who exactly would be take the spot just below rookie of the year put to rest, the only remaining point of contention was who would get stuck as the odd two out when Naruto failed and who would be allowed to take the spot of dead last.

Egao drummed her fingers on her desk three times. It couldn't be third place, because that was taken. So it had to be the third slot of two. So fifth and sixth. Brutus barked, passing the instruction to Lin in case she hadn't picked up on it. She wasn't good at looking underneath the underneath, especially when she was stressed. Tests like this were almost the definition of stressful to her.

I started on my test. Beside me, Egao raised her hand. Daisuke called on her.

"Yes Hyugga-san?" He asked.

"Ami cheated!" Egao tattled. "She has the answer key in her pocket."

A lot of writing stopped as the class digested this development. Egao was very perceptive. An Egao working with the sensei to punish cheaters was a terror.

Daisuke stalked over to the tables and sure enough Egao was right. "I'll only take off one point," Daisuke said. That obviously wasn't enough. We wanted to take away the ability for Ami's team to score in the same range as we did. "But don't let me catch you again."

Egao smirked. "And she passed a note to Fuki." I could see Fuki try to hide the note. Egao saw it too. "Fuki just dropped it on the floor so you wouldn't see it. Now she's trying to move it with a chakra string."

Fuki paled and Daisuke checked. "That's another point off Ami. You too Fuki. You should know better than this," he said. Yeah. She really should have destroyed the note. She must have needed it for some reason. I wished I could see the message from here, but I didn't want to look too closely and get called out for cheating.

Egao started answering questions again and her lips stayed turn up in a foxy grin. She looked every bit the smug Hyugga heiress she was. We would definitely be getting the fifth and sixth slots. Egao was a little tattletale. Anyone who tried to score in a way that would ruin our own position would get told on for cheating.

Ami raised her hand. "Can I go to the bathroom?" She asked.

Daisuke ignored her. Iruka was too busy watching for cheating and drama to give her his attention. "You can go," Mizuki said. "But hurry back and you can't bring your test with you."

Ami nodded and then headed toward the door. As she passed Hibachi she tripped. It wasn't a real trip; it would be pretty hard to trip on nothing, accidentally slam an elbow into someones nose, and then stumble into ripping their test in two.

But she pretended to trip at least. "I'm so sorry," Ami said, her tone taunting.

Hibachi's response was brutal. His arm shot out, grabbing the one she had been using to support herself on the desk. A moment later she was falling for real; right into a knee. There was a reason Ami usually bullied people like me who refused to fight back.

More importantly the two of them got along. This was a huge scene; a distraction.

"Ami, Hibachi, no fighting during the exam or you'll be held back, regardless of your score," Iruka said. He picked up another test to bring to Hibachi, but it just didn't matter. So many people were making use of the distraction. I certainly couldn't keep up with it all; not without using techniques that I had no intention of revealing in front of so many witnesses.

"KAI!" Unagi said. Ami's teammate had used the cover of her action to try and sneak in a genjutsu?

"Sensei! I think my answer key's wrong," one of Sasuke's fan girls yelled, sounding mortified. "I think if I keep scoring like this I'm going to get all my answers wrong and not just the worst possible score like I was planning."

"Sensei!" Egao called out, waving her hand around. "Kota just stole Fuki's test!"

It was pandemonium. Nearly everyone was cheating or trying to sabotage those around them and the sensei just didn't have time to deal with it all. Ami had actually gotten back up holding her bloodied nose and slunk out of the class room and after handing Hibachi a new test Iruka didn't even pretend he was worried for her; he was just too busy trying to keep up with everything. "Unagi that's a point off. You too Vikcy, I saw that."

Egao actually managed to catch Unami a second time, forcing his team out of contention for our spot. Ino maneuvered more of Sasuke's fan girls away from dead last. Sakura helped, imitating Egao's tattling.

Another ten minutes of testing passed. Egao's hand never seemed to go down as she gleefully pointing out cheaters. It was less her spotting people and more her having an on-going conversation with Daisuke as she pushed scores down as she pleased. After a while I wasn't even sure if she was doing it because it was necessary so much as she enjoyed it.

Thankfully, the chakra smoke that was the chaos of twenty one ninja in training taking a gennin exam began to clear. Lin's ninken gave a few happy barks, which I took as an indication that Brutus felt the the pecking order hadn't changed. I hadn't really expected it too. The thing about not having a team to rely on was that it left Sasuke's fan girl's at the mercy of the rest of the class.

But now that the top spots were settled and the two fan girls who _were_ going to be finding themselves on an existing team had accepted that position, things had settled down.

There might be adjustments in the last minutes, but anything like that made the assumption that Ino was _actually_ sleeping on her desk. The reality was probably one of the fan girls was ready to pounce and get in a fight over her Sasuke-kun the moment someone decided to deviate.

Sasuke raised his hand. Daisuke seemed stunned for a moment, a lot of the class did, but he called on him anyway.

"I had a question about girls," Sasuke said.

"Uh, I'm not sure how much I can help with that," Daisuke said.

"But I was wondering," Sasuke said. "If a girl helps someone whose failing, its okay to think that's hot right?"

The pieces clicked together as I finally figured out Sasuke's plan. Sakura stiffened in her seat as if someone had just announced her imminent death. Vengeance against the fan girl on his team. Vengeance against the fan girls who weren't on his team. Sasuke was an inspiration to avengers everywhere. Sometimes Egao got on my case for imitating his coping strategies, but could I really be blamed? They obviously worked and I had been so much worse before I adopted them as my own.

"So did anyone else think Minato Namikaze had the nickname of the Yellow Flash here but the Yellow Demon in Iwa?" Vicky asked, looking around.

"That's a point for sharing answers," Iruka warned. He was smiling though.

"Hn," I heard Sasuke grunt, his amusement obvious. I looked at our classes greatest prodigy. So well muscled, so good at everything he did, and so very serious, but also so tricky. He was living proof that the reason graduation ages were higher had nothing to do with skill, he could actually manage a fire jutsu even though he wasn't a chunnin.

 _Think of Itachi, not the cute boy,_ I told myself. I _really_ wasn't interested in Sasuke. Not like that. The ninja world wasn't a kind one. Sasuke would never wake from a nightmare begging his brother to stop killing me like he did for all his actual loved ones.

Naruto continued staring down at his test, not paying attention to the drama unfolding around him. The test went on. Seconds gave way to minutes. Almost all maneuvering to stay out of the leftover spots had stopped, though not by choice.

"Well, I might have cheated to make sure I answered Minato Namikaze on question fourteen, but at least I'm not going to get an answer about the _fourth Hokage_ wrong," Vicky said. It was her last gambit before she either had to accept her position as a left over or the rest of the class would need to force her to fail out entirely.

No one batted an eye at her words. Least of all Naruto. He was too busy staring at his test, his fist was clenched so tightly around his pen it was a wonder it wasn't broken. Naruto was double checking his work. The problem he was double checking was correct.

"That's another point off Vicky," Iruka said. "Don't lose another unless you want to fail entirely."

"I FIGURED IT OUT!" Naruto shouted. The entire class flinched at the sudden noise.

Naruto changed his answer. Brutus barked. "Wrong," Lin said. His correct answer was now wrong.

 _Idiot,_ I thought to myself.

"Idiot," I heard Egao mutter.

So many people said it, but it was just so true. The word idiot rippled through the class. Even Mizuki groaned it out.

Naruto moved to the next problem, one that built on the first one. He scratched out his old answer. That one was wrong too, but it built on the question before it. He jotted down a new one.

Brutus barked.

"Correct," Lin passed along.

 _What?_ I knew Brutus had memorized the answers in preparation for the test and he had correct examples throughout the room to use as a basis for comparison, but it still seemed impossible.

Naruto moved to the next question. It too built off the problem before it. He didn't hesitate to change his answer.

"Correct," Lin passed along after yet another bark.

I couldn't quite wrap my head around how he had managed it. He hadn't cheated. Everyone was watching him and trying to get him to cheat while helping to distract the sensei so he could get away with it. Shikamaru had sat up in his seat and was staring at the back of Naruto's head. I wished I could see his expression.

I could see Sakura wasn't planning to let Naruto get away with cheating. She had turned around in her seat, risking losing points to deal with what was probably the very last person she would ever want to be on a team with.

"Naruto cheated," Sakura accused.

"DID NOT!" Naruto yelled.

"DID TOO, IDIOT!" Sakura screamed back at him. "PROVE YOU DIDN'T CHEAT IF YOU REALLY DIDN'T! SHOW US THE TEST!"

Lin was covering her ears. When Sakura and Naruto got loud, they got _loud_. Sakura tended to get a violent a moment later. But Naruto _definitely_ saw something very different than the rest of us when he got into arguments with his crush.

I figured he would show her the test and start bragging about how he was definitely not cheating and was sure to become Hokage, because he was just that awesome. Instead Sakura's face went from angry to horrified; I could only see the back and sides of Naruto's head, but I could picture the gleam in his eyes.

"Have you been watching me Sakura?" Naruto asked, sounding like she had just offered him a bowl of ramen.

"IDIOT! I'LL NEVER BE INTERESTED IN YOU!" Sakura turned away, fuming. Her attempt at making sure Naruto failed hadn't worked.

"I only asked if you were watching me?" Naruto said. He sounded so satisfied with himself. Like he had just proven that Sakura actually liked him.

Snickers started around the class and Naruto basked in them.

I had absolutely no doubt that we could still fail Naruto out. But… should we? I nodded to myself. We definitely should. He wasn't close enough to truly pass reliably and there wasn't enough time for him to manage to get another five points. If he didn't manage the jutsu, he would still fail. Since it would be impossible to predict how he would do on the jutsu, it was just too risky.

But… could I really push back his dream by another year? I thought about it.

Yes. Yes I could. I _definitely_ could. I was a kunochi. This was quite literally child's play. Definitely the safest course of…

Egao kicked the side of my shin from underneath the table. Okay, I couldn't, because Egao actually liked Naruto. Plus, Will of Fire! Go leaf. Teamwork! Dammit, but this could go very badly very easily.

Even though Mizuki liked Naruto and Iruka tolerated him, Daisuke hated him. Even assuming we were lucky enough that it would actually be fair and he wouldn't have to deal with Daisuke, he would still have to do one jutsu. Just one, but there were three that I thought we might be tested on and I knew Naruto could only do two of them.

I could practically feel the weight of the classes decision. Then I saw the Will of Fire in action.

Kasumi, the girl who had been granted the right to be on Sasuke's team, took a deep breath. Then she started answering questions. She was letting Naruto take dead last instead of trying to make sure he failed.

All of the chunnin sensei save Daisuke were smiling as the written test came to a close. "Pencils down," Iruka ordered. "I'll be calling you in one at a time."


End file.
